Macomb Kiwanis Club Pancake Day April 18

Planning and preparation for the 63rd annual Macomb Kiwanis Club Pancake Day has been underway for several weeks.

This year's event is scheduled to be from 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, at the American Legion building, 221 E. Washington St., according to a news release. Volunteers include members of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity at Western Illinois University who have been helping out for the past few years. Fraternity members assist Kiwanis members on the grills, on the serving line, helping to clean up the tables and with set up the night before Pancake Day. AGR members also help sell tickets before the event.

On the menu are pancakes and sausage with coffee and other drinks also available. Tickets remain at $5 per person with pre-school age children free. The tickets are available from Kiwanis members or at the door.

Pancake Day is the club's largest fundraising event every year. The club aims to support programs for children in the community, including sponsoring a Little League baseball team, Boy's State, Fitness Training Programs, YMCA Learn To Swim, ongoing reading programs, holiday charitable activities such as Salvation Army bell ringing, assembling food baskets, Junior Olympics, Youth Performing Arts Society, making trauma dolls for victimized children, the Macomb Schools Sack Program and many others.

The club also made a donation to the Macomb Public Library improvement campaign. The Macomb Kiwanis Club celebrated its 90th anniversary last year.